ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

LAS VEGAS -- Chinese featherweight Tie Quan Zhang’s grin stretches from ear-to-ear as he wraps his hands for this early training session.

It’s a weekday morning in Las Vegas, 6,000 miles away from Zhang’s home in Beijing. He steps into the ring with American boxing coach Jimmy Gifford, who doesn’t speak a word of Chinese. Zhang, of course, is equally inept at English.

A translator stands outside the cage on-call but it’s amazing how little he’s used. This is what UFC president Dana White has been ranting about for years -- fighting is universal. It is, you might say, its own language.

“I kind of make some sounds and give him the motions of what’s going on,” Gifford told ESPN.com. “Sometimes, there was miscommunication, but after so many sessions there’s an understanding between us.

“He’s been getting workouts to learn English words. He calls me ‘boxing guru.’ And he knows the phrase, ‘Make him pay.’”

Zhang, who faces Issei Tamura at UFC 144 in Tokyo on Saturday, has traveled to the U.S. before for a training camp -- but never at the request of the UFC.

With the promotion continuing its push into foreign markets in 2012, the UFC organized a sort of one-sided fighter exchange program for Chinese athletes this year, bringing over Zhang and two other prospects, neither of whom are in the UFC, to Las Vegas to train with American coaches.

The UFC is not trying to artificially create a Chinese star -- if it were, matchmakers wouldn’t have originally scheduled Zhang against the tough Leonard Garcia on this weekend’s card -- but it’s common sense that if one emerges, well, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.

In 2010, the UFC established an office in Beijing and appointed Mark Fischer as managing director. In that short amount of time, Fischer says the brand has found its way into 270 million households via television and reaches another 500 million on the Internet.

Phase 1, if you want to call it that, is generally seen as complete. Phase 2 is in progress and would certainly benefit from the presence of a Chinese star.

“It’s very important to build local heroes in each market,” Fischer said. “China is a market where we have such tremendous potential. Once we have local heroes who are successful in the UFC, it will make a world of difference. Hence, these programs.”

Whereas an area such as Brazil was rife with fighters for the UFC to tap into, the Chinese market is going to require time to produce top-shelf talent.

The biggest hurdle standing in the way currently is what the UFC program looks to address. As of right now, there just is not the level of instructors or facilities in China teaching MMA as there are in other markets.

For instance, Zhang says, as a brown belt, he is the highest ranked Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner in the country’s 1.3 billion population.

He trains out of a gym he helped found, China Top Team. The facility has no ring to spar in and only a handful of qualified coaches. The athletes take turns running on one treadmill. When it’s time to lift weights, they use memberships to the athletic club next door.

“I feel like [the Chinese national] level of wrestling is good, but BJJ is almost non-existent,” said Zhang, through a translator. “There are maybe 10 jiu-jitsu coaches in all of China. I don’t think there are any Muay Thai instructors, but we have some Mongolian boxing.”

Enter the UFC’s program. During the month Zhang spent in Las Vegas, Gifford says although it was treated as a normal training camp to prepare for this week’s fight, he also said there was a bit of “teaching to teach” incorporated.

In a rare move, he allowed what he was teaching to be videotaped so the fighters at China Top Team that didn’t make the trip could watch. He’s also open to a two-week seminar in China -- something Fischer says is a real possibility as a mainstay in the future.

“They need work. They need coaching,” Gifford said. “I’m not opposed to doing a two-week stint in China. We can help coach coaches. That’s what they need.”

Once the sport grows in China -- currently, the UFC brand is recognized by an estimated 15 percent of the population -- there is reason to believe it could turn out some of the future’s biggest stars.

Obviously, martial arts has existed in the area for years. Sanda is the closest thing to MMA, which allows takedowns but no grappling and is fought with bigger gloves than the four-ounce version the UFC uses.

The nation’s best athletes are typically gobbled up by other sports at a relatively young age; however, Zhang says interest in his gym has increased dramatically since the UFC started building a presence there.

Even though the Chinese government is effective at signing talented youth to contracts, Zhang believes from what we has seen, the time when some of the top athletes choose to compete solely in MMA is not far off.

“The biggest difficulty has already been overcome,” Zhang said. “Right now, everybody in China and the government is already starting to accept the sport. There will be enough Chinese fighters to host a UFC event in three to five years.”

It was with considerable fanfare in September that the UFC announced its first trip back to Japan since the year 2000.

Given that country’s important role in the evolution of “modern” MMA, it’s pretty tempting to cast Saturday's UFC 144 as something more than just another step in the company’s ongoing international expansion. Japan was once the capital of a burgeoning MMA world; the fact that the UFC will now put boots on the ground there for the first time since its buyout of the Pride organization in 2007 has to mean, well, something.

But what, exactly?

Is it a throwback to the sport’s formative years, or a measuring stick of how far we’ve come? Is it an homage to the memory of Pride, or a Gilbert Yvel-style thumb to its eye?

As usual, there is no shortage of opinions on the subject. The UFC’s return to Japan has been hailed by some as a triumph -- not to mention a shot in the arm for a national MMA market badly in decline -- and lambasted by others as an empty gesture, the promotional equivalent of scaling Everest simply to prove it can be done.

It’s true that for years the UFC avoided Japan, and for the company to return only now that it’s established near-total dominance over the industry -- with a supersized, four-hour broadcast and a host of old and new stars -- it’s hard not to read it at least in part as a not-so-subtle flexing of organizational muscle.

In practical terms, though, there’s not much that separates this weekend’s effort from next month’s trip to Australia, or to Sweden the month after that, or to Brazil this summer.

If you ignore the history, UFC 144 will likely follow the same general script as most of the company’s overseas shows. The card will be stocked with homegrown talent, and one of the UFC’s lighter-weight champions will defend his belt in the evening’s main event. The other end of the card will get under way early in the day to serve a mostly American television audience.

So, yeah, pretty much by-the-book.

Wherever it treks, the UFC’s product remains its one constant. Short of breaking out Pride’s big, blindingly white ring and dusting off knees on the ground (both of which would be cool, if totally impractical), the “return to Japan” storyline has only so much juice if this UFC show is going to be just like any other. Japan likely won’t become a regular stop for the UFC, nor will it probably win the preferred status that markets like Canada and Brazil now enjoy. Japanese MMA will likely never again be what it once was.

In more intangible ways though, yeah, this one feels different. For those of us who have fond memories of crowding together at our buddies’ houses to watch mail-order DVDs (or even VHS tapes) of guys like Wanderlei Silva, the Nogueira brothers and that most elusive beast of all -- Fedor Emelianenko -- it’ll bring back memories.

There will no doubt be a slickly produced video package paying tribute to those days. And because the UFC now owns the tape library, that will also be our reminder that those days are gone forever.

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For the first time since he became the UFC’s lightweight champion, Frankie Edgar is the betting favorite heading into a fight. From the Vegas perspective, the time of feel-good flukes is over -- this time, Edgar is getting love where he normally just gets overlooked.

And when you glance at the tape, why not? Edgar has gone 3-0-1 against two guys in the past two years. But the guys he’s beaten weren’t just guys. They were oppressors of the 155-pound division: Gray Maynard, who entered the cage a behemoth next to Edgar, at least 15 pounds heavier; and B.J. Penn, who left the cage with no future in the division and no answer for the man who had plenty.

Edgar batted back two fast-encroaching forces of momentum, and he did it twice apiece. For the past couple of years, Edgar has been making guys redundant.

And that’s the kind of drama that feels too good to be true.

Now Edgar is getting set to face Benson Henderson: a dynamic, athletic, comet-shrieking member of the division who, as an underdog, becomes a tempting choice to dethrone the pride of New Jersey. This is how it goes. Most people who are taking Edgar are speaking in universals, saying things like, “I’ll never bet against Edgar again.” These people are letting you know they have learned their lesson. They believe now. In what, exactly? That Edgar’s own belief is a near tangible. That Edgar won’t lose -- because he can’t.

Yet there are still cynics who can’t fathom how a natural featherweight, who doesn’t cut but two loaves of bread to make 155 pounds, can continue beating guys the way he does. How can you take brute punishment against Maynard and come back, twice, in an eerie loop of sequences? How can you beat Penn with flickering jabs, fancy footwork and impossible determination ... twice?

Nobody ordinary can do this. But Edgar does. Edgar is cut from the same cloth as the iron-chinned post-war boxers who made heart the overriding component. For everyone who backs the latest head of steam, be cautious: Edgar is where momentum goes to die.

That’s why this feeling that Edgar has more to prove than Henderson at UFC 144 in Japan is literally backward, and yet partially true. Edgar has proved himself as a champion and as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters going. Now Edgar could be working on proving that he’s the greatest lightweight champion ever. If that sounds like a stretch of the imagination, then we’re right in Edgar’s wheelhouse.

Think about it: A victory over Henderson would be enough to tip him over into that rarefied space. At least, conversationally. In the short history of MMA, who would have had a better run? Penn was tremendous for the three years between 2007-2010. He defended the belt three times with a cameo superfight at welterweight with Georges St. Pierre. Then he ran into Frankie Edgar, the little impasse that could.

Takanori Gomi was a force for a long while in Pride, but the competition he faced wasn’t like Edgar’s. Jens Pulver defended his belt twice, but he has been in a career free fall since 2006.

There are other mentionables, but none as pronounced as Edgar, who has a chance to defy logic on an even larger scale come Saturday.

And wouldn’t that be just like him to do it? A guy with no business fighting in MMA’s most competitive division has a real chance of becoming its ultimate kingpin.

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The year 2012 will be an interesting one for former Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. For starters, his contract with the promotion is up in October, meaning he could end up making the leap to the UFC around that time. That’s a prospect that makes plenty of fans happy, considering how deep the lightweight pool there is.

Or he could stay with Bellator, of which the Philadelphia native has grown into his role as its flagship fighter. In the meantime? Alvarez will have at least one more fight, and that’s an opportunity to try and avenge a 2008 loss to Shinya Aoki.

At least, that’s the nearly official plan.

“As far as I’m being told the fight’s going to happen,” Alvarez says. “I just don’t get why I can’t get it confirmed 100 percent. Right now it’s ‘verbally agreed,’ and that’s where we stand.”

Alvarez/Aoki II is penciled in for April 20 and will be held in the United States, though the exact location is still to be determined. As much as Alvarez would like the fight to take place in Atlantic City or in his hometown of Philadelphia, he doesn’t think that will be the case due to amount of cards Bellator has held recently in those markets. What he does know is that he was asking for this rematch well before he fought Michael Chandler. The last time the two fought at Dynamite 2008 in Japan, Aoki submitted Alvarez with a heel hook just a minute and a half into the fight.

That loss has sat in his craw for a long, long time.

Cut forward three years and Aoki and Alvarez remain two of the biggest non-Zuffa stars going. In fact, you could argue that Alvarez/Aoki is the biggest non-Zuffa fight that can be made right now, with both fighters still considered top-10 lightweights in consensus rankings, even with Alvarez having lost his belt to Chandler this past November. Alvarez has gone 7-1 since his first fight with Aoki, while Aoki has gone 11-2.

“As much as I wanted it, it was something that I thought I’d never get,” Alvarez says of the rematch. “When I went to Japan every other time before [the Aoki fight], it seemed like I was getting fan acceptance because I was fighting guys from other countries, like Brazil and Norway. Yet when I finally fought Aoki, I went over there and they treated me different. They nicknamed me the ‘American Knuckle Star,’ and pitted it as ‘Japan versus America.’ It really changed.

“

... when I finally fought Aoki, I went over there and they treated me different. They nicknamed me the 'American Knuckle Star,' and pitted it as 'Japan versus America.' It really changed.

” -- Eddie Alvarez, on the hostile environment he stepped into when he faced Shinya Aoki

“So it’s good to get the revenge back in my country -- just to come off a loss like the one I just came off of [to Chandler], and get back into a rankings fight finally. It rarely happens in our sport where you get two guys who are actually ranked, top name guys who get to fight each other. It’s a good fight.”

Where does this leave Chandler, who choked out Alvarez at Bellator 58 in a back-and-forth war that many considered the fight of the year? Alvarez says that though he wanted Aoki and ended up with Chandler the first time through, this time he wanted Chandler and ended up with Aoki. His druthers are being met, only completely out of order.

“Yeah, the Chandler rematch was my first option that I wanted,” he says. “But Bellator wasn’t going to let that happen, and I was sad that they opted to put me back in a tournament when I felt like the fight warranted a rematch in some way, shape or form. So, I was disappointed about that, but there was nothing I could do about it. It’s not what I want, it’s what the promotion is willing to give me.

“But this Aoki fight was something I asked of them even before the Chandler bout. And although we don’t have 100 percent contract in hand yet, it seems like they’re getting it done. I’m grateful they are going to bring Aoki over, someone who is in the rankings and someone where, if I actually beat him, it would do good for me.”

Alvarez’s future beyond Aoki is uncertain. It’s possible that April 20 will be the last time he represents Bellator in the cage. Whether or not that’s the case, he’s looking to close out his contract with a big bang to put himself in a coveted position.

“With Bellator, I have either two fights or eight months,” he says. “After that, we’ll see. They’re either going to give me Aoki and then another fight, or I have about eight months left.”

Either way, Alvarez refuses to look beyond April 20, because nothing good comes of speculating too far ahead.

“It’s out of my hands at this point,” he says. “Going into the Mike Chandler fight, I was too focused on what everybody else thought, about what the media thought, and things like that. I just need to relieve myself of that, and focus on the things that I can control, and that’s winning fights, going in there and performing and beating my opponents. Everything else just seems senseless to me.”

And to focus, Alvarez is training right now at Imperial Athletics in Florida with the star-studded cast of the Blackzilians. He says he’s proceeding with the understanding of an April 20 fight with Aoki, and in two weeks he’ll relocate back to his familiar Philadelphia gym to dig into the crux of his camp.

What’s he expecting to see come fight night? The same Aoki he saw the first time, with a few new wrinkles.

“I know he’s been in Singapore training a lot of Muay Thai, so I’ll be expecting more kicks to set up his takedowns,” he says. “But, I don’t think it’s any secret -- regardless of whether he wants to stand for a little bit or stand for a long time -- I know his ultimate goal, and that’s to try and get it to the floor. He’ll want to create some sort of scramble and get it to the ground. I feel like that’s his strength and that’s what he’s going to stick to.”

For Greg Jackson, the decision to corner prized pupil Jon Jones in his light heavyweight title fight against Rashad Evans at UFC 145 has everything to do with tense.

As in, the difference between "present" and "past."

Jackson has long been big on loyalty. As the ultimate “there's-no-I-in-team” guy, he’s vocal about his stance that members of his Albuquerque-based camp shouldn’t fight one another and that he’ll recuse himself from the situation when they do, as in the case of Carlos Condit’s eventual welterweight unification bout with Georges St. Pierre.

But if choosing to be by Jones’ side when he meets up with his nemesis on April 21 violates those principles, it’s only in the most abstract way.

Evans, after all, isn’t a member of Team Jackson anymore. Since splitting from the squad in March, he hasn’t had a ton of nice things to say about it, either, publicly criticizing Jackson for recruiting Jones and telling the media he felt “stabbed in the back” when Jones pulled an about-face on the idea of meeting him in the Octagon.

Regardless of what you think about Evans’ reasons for leaving the team, he’s gone now, while Jones remains a member in good standing. In fact, it's pretty easy to argue that working Jones' corner for this fight doesn't undermine Jackson's loyalty to the fighters he trains but rather reinforces it.

If Team Jackson is lucky, it also will give Jones an edge on fight night.

Jackson, of course, was the principal architect behind Evans’ rise from underdog “Ultimate Fighter” winner to undefeated 205-pound champion. During that crucial time in his development when Evans went from eking out a split decision over the likes of Brad Imes in 2005 to -- three years later -- knocking out legends like Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin and cementing his status as one of the sport's best known figures, Jackson was the shepherd.

Is it possible for Evans to completely distance himself -- both mentally and physically -- from that years-long relationship in just 13 months of training elsewhere? It hardly seems so.

Granted, no fighter in his right mind would ever concede that his opponent has a psychological advantage leading up to a big bout, but what human being wouldn’t feel that way given the circumstances? What man wouldn’t look across the cage at a former training partner, his former mentor and chief strategist and not feel at least a tremor of doubt?

It’s often said that the sports world gives coaches too much credit. Maybe that’s true. Maybe Jackson -- one of the sport’s most likable figures -- will have little or nothing to do with what happens in the cage that night. Perhaps there will be so little resemblance between the Rashad Evans he once knew and the Evans who shows up to fight in Atlanta that Jackson will be a nonfactor. Perhaps it will even be Evans who has the mental advantage, after rumors indicate he routinely gave Jones all he could handle in the gym back in the days before their relationship fell apart.

Then again, maybe Jackson will play a roll.

If this fight comes down to game planning and tactics -- as it did earlier this month when Condit outpointed Nick Diaz -- it's possible his knowledge and previous work with Evans might have something to do with who is the UFC's 205-pound champion in future tense.

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For all the marvels, one thing that UFC President Dana White has never been particularly good at is speaking for Dan Henderson. This was the case before Henderson bolted for Strikeforce, and it’s still the case right now.

And for as telegraphic as Henderson has been in his latest title quest -- in any division he can physically make from middleweight on up -- he apparently turns into a sphinx when it comes to everything besides. White says Hendo’s waiting for Jon Jones/Rashad Evans; Henderson says that isn't true, that he wants to stay busy. White says Hendo turned down a fight with Lyoto Machida; Henderson says that’s the buffet talking -- that fight was never on the table.

One of these guys needs to get a landline, because the phone calls keep breaking up.

So what’s the truth? Probably that neither party has any good ideas on what to do. Henderson is hovering as contender No. 1B in two divisions, with willingness to explore a third (heavyweight). Yet out of all those divisions, the UFC can’t find him an opponent. It’s problematic for a 41-year-old to hit these kind of wait-and-see impasses.

The sticking point is that Henderson wants a guy of similar projection, somebody with a couple of wins in a row and title momentum. Those are scarce right now in the divisions Henderson dabbles in. If Henderson could make welterweight, he’d find the kind of guys he’s talking about. People like Carlos Condit, who has an interim belt he doesn’t know what to do with. Or Jake Ellenberger, who fits that bill, too. To fight those types, Henderson would have to fast like a yogi for as long as it would take to wait out Jones/Evans in April. In other words, fat chance.

At light heavyweight (his obvious preference), there’s Machida, who’s lost three of his last four bouts. But Machida’s in his own purgatory -- and even then he’s become a pretty attractive “why not” proposition for people in better positions to consider. Henderson apparently is. And there’s also the winner of Ryan Bader/Quinton Jackson, which happens on Feb. 26 in Japan at UFC 144. If the UFC could book a quick turnaround fight with the winner there and jibe up the schedules to the Jones/Evans bout, Henderson would do it.

Again, though, that’s all a dice throw.

Yet aside from a Mauricio Rua rematch, that’s about all there is -- and a Rua rematch would feel too much like déjà vu. How haunting would it be to sign on for that fight just in time for Evans to go down with an injury, just like last time? Never mind the memorable fight they put on, had Henderson waited a week before signing on for Rua at UFC 139, he’d already have fought Jon Jones at UFC 140 in Toronto. That stays in Henderson’s mind as much as the experience with Rua.

So who else is there? Henderson has made it clear he doesn’t want to go back down to middleweight unless it’s for a rematch with Anderson Silva -- which leaves heavyweight, a division that Henderson would never balk at fighting in so long as it could be perceived as fan friendly. Unfortunately, not a lot of fights make sense there, either (read: virtually none).

Pat Barry has Lavar Johnson in his sights, and Cheick Kongo is fighting Mark Hunt in Japan. Stefan Struve? Doesn’t seem a big enough name for Henderson. All the elite names (Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez) have fights already. And besides, as Henderson said, “none of those guys wants to fight me, anyway.” Daniel Cormier stares at his phone most days saying, “why won’t you ring, why won’t you ring?” Shane Carwin is still a mile down the calendar from coming back. The only name that could be intriguing at all would be Fabricio Werdum, a smaller heavyweight who shares a distinction with Henderson of having defeated Fedor Emelianenko.

It would be a cameo, but in a world of very few alternatives, it might be enough to pique Henderson’s interest.

Otherwise, the options for a marquee fight are very limited for Henderson right now, and matchmaker Joe Silva and Dana White are throwing up their hands with what to do. So is Henderson. Will he wait? Will he fight? Seems like a good time to meet up, put some headshots on the wall, and throw some darts.

Or, at very least, for the UFC and Dan Henderson to have a talk.

The joke was on Jon Jones at the UFC 145 news conference on Thursday after Rashad Evans sent the media into an eruption of laughter at Jones' expense. More »